Monday, August 9, 2010

One of the best things about this summer is now that I am in my new old job, I don't have to spend hours of my weekend reading and covering scripts. This frees up a lot of time to have long, lazy lunches and I have had quite a few of those lately. Last weekend, armed with my Blackboard Eats code for 30% off, I joined Anna of Banana Wonder and Fiona of Gourmet Pigs for high tea at Jin Patisserie.

Jin is a lovely little garden spot in Venice Beach on Abbot Kinney. Parking can be a little tricky in that neighborhood, but I didn't have too much trouble finding a spot last Saturday afternoon. When you walk in to the garden, you immediately feel as if you're miles from the hectic craziness of urban life. There's a calming little fountain and people hanging out drinking pot after pot of tea as if they have all the time in the world.

Jin has an assortment of pastries, sandwiches, and salads, but it seems their most popular offering is their high tea service which comes with one pot of tea from their extensive tea menu and a variety of savories and pastries. We all chose green teas, mine being the Peche Mignon which was described as having a variety of summer fruit flavors.

After we received the tea, it took a while for the actual food to come out, but I was so excited to receive our spread. Each of us was greeted with a plate of scones, egg sandwiches, a mini quiche, and an assortment of pastries. The scones were more like biscuits in texture, and had bits of orange zest in them. They went well with the cream and what I assumed to be blackberry jam. I'm obsessed with egg sandwiches so I quickly devoured mine and the quiche was similarly delightful with mushrooms and spinach in almost every bite.

I'm not normally a fan of eating so many desserts at once, but these were small bites and it was nice to have such a variety. My favorites were the passion fruit and little chocolate that topped the banana cake.

To round out our afternoon decadence, Fiona suggested we order the Spring Bouquet cake. It's a meringue wrapped around pastry cream with chopped up strawberries and mangoes. It's not too heavy and really a great fresh bite to finish out the afternoon.

Jin only allows you to have one pot of tea during this service so if you decide to partake...sip slowly. Each of us completely finished our pots before we were even halfway through eating, but there is plenty of fruit flavored water to keep you from going thirsty. Service is a little on the slow side so expect to be there a while, but a nice afternoon in a beach town forgetting about the crazy world around you makes it all worth the wait.